Decoding Dyslexia. This Cognitive Disorder Need Not Impede Students
String students with learning disabilities can be taught—if the teacher learns the signs
Few high points in Patricia Wyatt’s teaching career match the moments when a student strides onto the performance stage and sails through “Hot Cross Buns,” showcasing a musical ability that’s been nurtured despite learning disabilities so severe that the student can’t speak in complete sentences or needs help walking down the hall. In particular, Wyatt has found joy in helping students with dyslexia excel—a skill most teachers need, even if they don’t know it.
“[Dyslexic students] are in string classes more often than you would normally think,” says Wyatt, orchestra director in several Howard County public schools in Maryland. “And the tricky part is that many dyslexic students might not be diagnosed—or if they have been, the diagnosis might not be shared with the string teacher. You have to look for signs of confusion, and go from there.”
This article, "Decoding Dyslexia. This Cognitive Disorder Need Not Impede Students," is part of the Strings Archive, which you can access with a paid site subscription.
If you have a paid subscription, you are seeing this message because you have not logged in.
What do you want to do?
Log in using my current paid subscription account.
Subscribe now and get our best offer.
- Shades of Grey: 2012 String Teachers Ethics Survey Results
-
- Break Through to a Young Hyperactive String Student
-
- Improving Your Effectiveness as a Studio Teacher
-
- 'Making Music and Enriching Lives: A Guide for All Music Teachers,' by Bonnie Blanchard and Cynthia Blanchard Acree (Indiana University Press; $24.95)
-
- How to Address a String Student's Injury
-
- Focus on the Recording Arts—How to Create the Ultimate Audition Video
-
ARE FULLY MODERATED
You must be logged in to rate and comment. Log in or Subscribe now.